1.) Q: Is this device WAAS enable? 1.) A: Yes, the device is WAAS enabled by default, that are sold by USGlobalSat, Inc and its Authorized Dealers . Note, receivers with firmware 3.1.1 and above are WAAS enable out of the box.

5.) Q: How many satellites are needed for 3-D positioning? 5.) A: A minimum of 4 satellites (3 for 2-D no altitude)

6.) Q: Can I reconfigure receiver? If so, what program? 6.) A: Yes. SirfDemo programming utility. Note, custom settings are temporary until the receiver has exhausted both the Li-ion battery and internal Super-Cap back-up power supply. Then the receiver will revert back to its original default settings.

7.) Q: Can I reconfigure receiver's Baud-Rate? If so, what program? 7.) A: Yes. SirfDemo programming utility. Note, custom settings are temporary until the receiver has exhausted both the Li-ion battery and internal Super-Cap back-up power supply. Then the receiver will revert back to its original default settings.

8.) Q: Can I reconfigure receiver's NMEA data? If so, what program? 8.) A: Yes. SirfDemo programming utility. Note, custom settings are temporary until the receiver has exhausted both the Li-ion battery and internal Super-Cap back-up power supply. Then the receiver will revert back to its original default settings.

10.) Q: Once set. Is SiRF Binary Protocol a permanent configuration? 10.) A: These settings are temporary until the receiver has exhausted both the Li-ion battery and internal Super-Cap back-up power supply. Then the receiver will revert back to its original default settings.

17.) Q: How does the "20 channel" affect performance? Both: MR350 and BT-368i have "20 channel" in the specs? 17.) A: The sensitivity numbers like the TTFF numbers don't really mean much, as they're hard to tie into real life observations.

18.) Q: How much more is the SiRF Star III power consumption compare to SiRF Star IIe/LP? 18.) A: About 15% more power hungry than the previous SiRF Star IIe/LP.

19.) Q: Is SiRF Star III quicker in signal acquisition? 19.) A: Yes, SiRFStarIII can acquire much faster than IIe/XT2 in difficult environments thanks to the added correlating power and that is not reflected in the dB number.

20.) Q: What are the charger's electrical specifications (voltage, amps) for this unit? 20.) A: The BT368i’s electrical characteristics are 4.5V~5.5V / 0.5A.

21.) Q: How much accuracy is comprised without utilizing WAAS? 21.) A: Since Selective Availability (SA) was removed in May 2000, the residual GPS error of approximately 10 meters is mostly due to GPS signal deflection that the SBAS system can only marginally correct (I have never been able to measure any improvement from EGNOS but others have seen 1/2 meters with WAAS). On the other hand SBAS is crucial for critical use such as flying a plane as it allows for near real time GPS signal integrity checking.

22.) Q: What is the biggest benefit of the SiRF Star III chipset? 22.) A: Correlation power, the action of analyzing the signal received from the satellites and making sense out of it to compute a position. Sounds simple enough, but the signals are very weak (sent from 20,000 kms above our heads) and generally very degraded by our immediate environment, so the more correlation power you have the better your chances are of getting a "fix". In addition, TTFF is less dependent on the environment and once you get a lock you rarely lose it, even indoors. With SiRFIII, GPS requires less "work", for instance, you no longer need to choose between waiting 2 minutes when you leave a parking garage in the morning to get a fix or risk driving around for 10 minutes without one, now you'll generally get a fix in 45 seconds in both situations .

23.) Q: Does the BT-368i support multiple bonding/pairing so it can be used with more than one Bluetooth partner at the same time? 23.) A: Unfortunately, it does not support this feature.

25.) Q: Will my receiver support older NMEA standards? 25.) A: Yes, NMEA 2.0 is backwards compatible with older versions of the protocol. NOTE: If your map software (such as Street Atlas 5) requires data
sentence GGA, and your GPS (such as the Magellan 3000) does not
output GGA, then they will NOT work together.

26.) Q: What is the meaning of "baud rate"? 26.) A: Baud rate is really the rate of bit transitions on the serial data link. Since each byte of data adds a start and stop bit, it is 10 bits long, and 38400 baud is 3840 bytes per second. Faster bit rates transfer more bytes per second, i.e., greater bandwidth.

27.) Q: Can we upgrade our SiRF firmware? What' s needed for the process? 27.) A: SiRF provides the new versions to our direct customers, but it is up to them to determine if they want to provide an update mechanism to their end-user customers. While the process is relatively simple, unless there is a hardware way to put the receiver into flash upgrade mode (internal boot mode is our term) there is a chance to get things stuck so you have to send it back to the manufacturer or a repair depot to recover. Further, you must be supplied with a flash programming utility to do the job since you cannot access the flash directly -- you have to go through the ARM processor on the SiRF chipset."

28.) Q: What is static navigation? 28.) A: Static navigation when enable, velocities lower than 1.2 m/s for 3 seconds we will freeze the position, and leave them frozen until velocity exceeds 1.4 m/s. Static navigation is a mode designed for motor vehicles, which causes the position to become pinned at one location when velocity is determined to be low enough. This is designed to make navigation systems operate more reasonably when the GPS Selective Availability (SA) signal degradation is turned on.

29.) Q: Why does my receiver fail to acquire satellite information after in use from a flight? 29.) A: Under GPSInfo, perform a cold start. As a result, the BT-368i will reset and register for terrestrial coordinate calculation.

30.) Q: Whats the official time required to fully charge the unit from having the red led flashing? 30.) A: Three to four hours

31.) Q: How important is having WAAS enabled on your GPS receiver? 31.) A: SiRF StartIII currently does not have WAAS enabled, not that this matters unless you intend on relying on it to operate a plane.

32.) Q: What satellite identification number is used for WAAS and EGNOS?32.) A: Satellite #33 (AoRE) is for EGNOS, Satellite #35 (AoRW) is for WAAS, and it has been suggested that Satellite #41 (PoR) will be used to indicate that data is being received from the Japanese MSAS system.

33.) Q: What is trickle mode? 33.) A: The Trickle mode allows for an increase in battery life by putting the GPS module in sleep mode for very short periods of time, such as 300ms per 1s cycle, which will result in a battery life increase of about 40% according to my testing. It can be useful for certain types of applications but there is a hit on performance as the receiver will have to get "back on its feet" when it wakes up. It is especially problematic in difficult reception conditions. Starting with FW 2.3, SiRF has added the "Adaptive Trickle" mode, which as its name implies will adapt the power savings to the conditions of reception. In optimal conditions, I found that the battery life increase amounts to about 30%.

34.) Q: What is needed for the Tom Tom Navigator to see my BT-368i receiver?34.) A: Go to Bluetooth settings, advanced, services, serial port, and make a note of the outgoing port - that's the one you need to use. In the Bluetooth manager, I'm sure you have connected to the SPP service of the receiver. Pairing is available, but not required. In the Bluetooth Manager search for new devices, once it found the BT-368i, tap it to find the available services. Find the SPP service and connect to the device. TomTom Navigator needs the BT-368i to be selected as an "Other cable NMEA GPS receiver" instead of "Other Bluetooth GPS receiver". Once this is performed the TomTom Navigator will be able to "see" the BT-368i GPS device. The problem lies with-in the TomTom software, not with the BT-368i.

35.) Q: Cannot connect to BT-368i. When doing a "discover" I see the BT-368i. But I cannot establish a serial connection. What I can do? 35.) A: Change the original microsoft windows XP bluetooth stack. Instead of the stack provided from IBM ( widcomm)

36.) Q: Why am I not getting any or very weak GPS signals even though my GPS receiver is directly under the windshield glass? 36.) A: Certain vehicles may be equipped with special windshields that contain metal in the glass that prevents GPS and RF signals from being received properly. Customers with these types of windshields must use an exterior GPS antenna for improved results for GPS applications. If you are unsure about whether your vehicle has one of these types of windshields, contact your dealer and request more information. This vehicle list may not be complete and may updated from time-to-time.
See: http://www.e-zpassny.com/static/info/exteriortags.html

37.) Q: The battery light didn't turn orange while the unit was being charged. What can I do to correct this problem?37.) A: If you are using the DC charger check for an open (blown) fuse. In the other hand, if you are using the AC charger connect a different device that supports this voltage to confirm its functionality.

38.) Q: How do I connect and use a Bluetooth GPS device with Windows? 38.) A: In order to set up a Bluetooth Connection with a GPS receiver, please follow these steps...

39.) Q: How do I connect and use a Bluetooth GPS device with Mac? 39.) A: In order to set up a Bluetooth Connection with a GPS receiver, please follow these steps...

40.) Q: How do I connect and use a Bluetooth GPS device Pocket PC? 40.) A: In order to set up a Bluetooth Connection with a GPS receiver, please follow these steps...

41.) Q: How do I connect and use a Bluetooth GPS device Palm? 41.) A: In order to set up a Bluetooth Connection with a GPS receiver, please follow these steps...

42.) Q: How do I connect and use a Bluetooth GPS device WinMobile5? 42.) A: In order to set a Bluetooth Connection with a GPS receiver, please follow these steps...

43.) Q: There is a "?" over the gps icon and I am not allowed to enter a security code. when opening third party software the gps is detected. What can I do to correct this?43.) A: Disregard the GPS icon question mark and proceed with the pairing process. Worst case, perform a device reset.

44.) Q: What is the device’s passkey? 44.) A: The device’s passkey is “0000”.

45.) Q: Can I alter the GPS datum?45.) A: Unfortunately, you cannot alter the GPS datum.

46.) Q: After changing my GPS receiver to send data to my PC in SiRF format, which was configured using the included SiRFDemo utility program, my GPS receiver's LED is now very dim and no longer is sending data to my mapping application. What can I do to correct this?46.) A: First... you are required to download SiRF Demo programming utility here

Once this program is downloaded and installed on your laptop or desktop machine, you may proceed executing the following instructions listed below.

49.) Q: Can I disable the auto-off feature?49.) A: Unfortunately, it’s a standard programmed feature to conserve battery energy. However, Power Saving Mode is only executed with the absense of a Bluetooth pairing. Unless, the unit is connected to an external energy source.

50.) Q: What is the output format for this receiver?50.) A: GGA(1sec), GSA(1sec), GSV(5sec), RMC(1sec), GLL

51.) Q: What is the battery's energy life capabilities when operating receiver continuously?51.) A: Ten hours of continuous use.

52.) Q: What bluetooth version is the device operating under?52.) A: Bluetooth 2.0

63.) Q: What are the BT368i’s advantages over the BT338 GPS receiver?63.) A:The advantages are the following:

1. Sleeker casing

2. More advanced power management, preserving battery life and performance.

3. Very convenient "auto-off" mode with the receiver powering off when the Bluetooth connection was not used for 10 minutes, a good way to extend battery life for those of us who would forget to switch off our GPS receivers. In addition, "auto-off" is deactivated when the receiver is powered via USB. This addresses one frequent request from users who wanted to leave their receiver powered on at all times in a hidden spot in their car. However the BT-368i will turn itself off if power is lost and will not turn itself off on again if power resumes,

4. Lower power consumption of the new "single chip" SiRFstarIII chipset compared with the "dual chip" (RF+Baseband) used on the original SiRFstarIII receivers.